Podcast with Jason Greenwood
March 25, 2025 · 55:48
The crew convenes to discuss Jason Greenwood's experience at ShopTalk, the world's largest retail conference. As one of the few true B2B specialists in a sea of B2C vendors, Jason discovered an unexpected opportunity for genuine B2B engagement at an otherwise retail-focused event. The episode explores the nuanced distinction between wholesale (which has B2B pricing complexity but B2C simplicity) and true B2B commerce, where search, discovery, and solution identification drive purchasing decisions.
The conversation challenges assumptions about where B2B and B2C overlap, examining case studies from manufacturers and distributors experimenting with wholesale channels. The group debates whether wholesale businesses operate more like B2C or B2B, ultimately concluding that complexity exists on a spectrum and that there's significant opportunity for B2B education in spaces traditionally dominated by retail thinking.
Jason's networking yield at ShopTalk generated four to five potential deals despite (or because of) the unconventional venue, while the crew grapples with larger questions about certification programs like MACH, composability, and how industry ideologies sometimes obscure practical business needs.
Wholesale requires B2B-tier pricing, quantity, and shipping complexity but lacks the sophisticated search and discovery demands of true B2B commerce that involves specification, configuration, and solution matching.
B2B specialists are rare enough at B2C events that they face overwhelming demand; this asymmetry creates disproportionate value for those willing to navigate the wrong audience.
Industry frameworks and certifications sometimes become ideological rather than practical, creating confusion about what capabilities businesses actually need versus what they should have in theory.
The complexity of matching the right product to the right application drives the need for guided selling, configuration, and deep search capabilities that retail doesn't require.
“If you're one of the rare ones that are there to talk about B2B and get into depth about it, people want to meet with you because there's not many." — [[Jason Greenwood]]”
“Wholesale falls into that quadrant that requires B2B tier pricing, quantities, shipping capabilities. But it doesn't require the sort of robustness of search and discovery and merchandising." — [[Jason Hein]]”
“I don't know what I don't know. And I think part of the challenge that a lot of these folks that are early in their digital B2B journey is, they don't know what problems they have right now." — [[Jason Greenwood]]”
“They don't know what problems they're going to have once they solve the problems that they know they have right now." — [[Samuel Aldinger]]”
Jason Greenwood — Greenwood Consulting
Jason Hein — Acumenta
Jay Schneider — B2B Squared
Samuel Aldinger — Highland Consulting
B2b Ecommerce Strategy Wholesale Search Discovery Platform Selection Industry Conference
Real conversations with operators and leaders building digital commerce for B2B.